My Eclipse Trip - Sutton Mountain WSA

[drm]

The Great American Eclipse of 2017 passed just south of me and I decided I wanted to go see it - none of my friends were interested. With reports of crowds and traffic armageddon, I decided to stay farther east than the bigger crowds on the US97 corridor. I examined the Oregon map for the BLM, whose land is open to backpacking. I wasn't looking for a trip deep into the wilderness because likely there would no water. I just wanted to get far enough from the road and the crush of car campers. I found Sutton Mountain, a BLM wilderness study area, just north of Mitchell, OR, and virtually on the center line of the path of totality. All worked according to plan.

The day before the eclipse I drove down, with no traffic at all. Got lunch in Condon on the way. When I got to one of the parking areas for Sutton Mtn, it was packed with car campers, many with their tents on pretty steep slopes.


But I found enough space to park my car and found a wide opening in the barbed wire and headed up the trail


I set up camp 0.6 miles up the trail. I just wanted the first flat spot with a view to the east. There were a few people camped farther up, including on a knoll that apparently had views west as well - in hope of seeing the shadow approaching at over 2000 mph. Here is my camp.


This is a photo of the eclipse app on my phone (I had 4 bars up there). The whole scene is the path of totality and the blue line is the center line, showing that I was indeed in the middle of the path of totality


I had a nice sunset, though the amount of clouds was worring


The morning dawned completely clear and blue, but as the partial eclipse was growing, thin high clouds started moving in, and it was too late to try and go elsewhere.


So I stayed put. My pics of the partial eclipse - holding the eclipse glasses in front of the camera, did not work, but to my surprise, the picture of the total did work!


The trip back took maybe 45 minutes longer than the drive down, with traffic backups at junctions and getting into the towns of Fossil and Condon. From Condon going north, there were two highways, splitting the traffic burden, so it was clear going from there. Taking SR 206 home, I passed over US97 9 miles south of I84 and it was a parking lot, but I just cruised over on the overpass and into The Dalles.

[Guy]

Hey Dean, I think I saw you walk past our group up on Sutton!

Were is that parking area and trail head though it's not where we stayed or started from.

We started here, it was much quieter:
https://goo.gl/maps/gyGdGokB1pk

[drm]

Hey Dean, I think I saw you walk past our group up on Sutton!

Were is that parking area and trail head though it's not where we stayed or started from.

We started here, it was much quieter:
https://goo.gl/maps/gyGdGokB1pk

If you walked past me, you must have found that parking area? That was crowded but not where I was. If you went up from where you say on the map, you didn't see me. I was the next parking area south.

[retired jerry]

I was in the Ochocos a bit west.

Same thing, trailhead was packed with people but I walked 1/2 mile away and found some solitude

[Guy]

Hey Dean, I think I saw you walk past our group up on Sutton!

Were is that parking area and trail head though it's not where we stayed or started from.

We started here, it was much quieter:
https://goo.gl/maps/gyGdGokB1pk

If you walked past me, you must have found that parking area? That was crowded but not where I was. If you went up from where you say on the map, you didn't see me. I was the next parking area south.

Yeah, we went up from the spot I marked on the Map, didn't see you on the way up but thought I saw you up on the summit maybe not. Wasn't aware of another parking lot which is probably a good thing because ours was much less crowded!

[drm]

Yeah, we went up from the spot I marked on the Map, didn't see you on the way up but thought I saw you up on the summit maybe not.

I never went to any summit.

Wasn't aware of another parking lot which is probably a good thing because ours was much less crowded!

Because the turnoff was not as obvious. I had planned to stop there and drove right by it. But how crowded the parking area was didn't matter if you were willing to camp above even a little ways.

[Guy]

Yeah, we went up from the spot I marked on the Map, didn't see you on the way up but thought I saw you up on the summit maybe not.

I never went to any summit.

Then I didn't see you, maybe your stunt double

[drm]

Before going there, I thought that just maybe Sutton Mtn might make a decent spring backpacking destination on it's own. It's a wilderness study area, which means the BLM is maintaining it as a wilderness in case it is ever so designated. After visiting, my guess is that it is overrun by cows in the spring. Who knows though, might be worth a try some year when everything else is under snow.